Charades meaning : A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole. A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles. A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting. A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use. A game in which each player acts out a word or phrase, usually based on puns of each syllable and without speaking, for the others to guess.